Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Thursday I saw Mike, my Surgeons PA. He checked me out head to toe and told me things look good. I haven't heard anything back on my blood tests. He said if I didn't hear anything back that my levels were doing ok and I don't have to see him again for 3 months! Woo hoo!! {=^;^=}

He said my color is good and my hair looked great. I've not had any loss at all from what anyone of us can tell. I have lots of hair and have always had a tendency to shed but, I'm not finding clumps or hair anywhere or losing handfuls when I shower. I just have the normal strand here and there that I always have.

I attribute part of that to the kick as Bariatric Fusion Vitamins I take and trying to work protein into everything I eat.

I addressed the swelling I am having in my right leg. It's not nearly as bad as it has been over the years .. but enough that I am noticing it. So I am trying some lasix every other day for about a month to see if that helps .. I've been on it for 3 days now and it seems to be helping .. my leg is "loosening" up.

I also saw my Endocrinologist on Thursday as well. That appt. went so so. I went to get the results of my scan I had done before my surgery.

As expected I have growths on what's left of my Thyroid. After a momentary panic and mini meltdown I calmed down. My Mom died of Thyroid cancer at 61 years old. I've already had the left side removed from 2 golf ball sized growths 10 years ago. My Mom's side of the family has had many issues with Thyroid disease in general. My Grandmother, her other daughter and my cousin, her other Granddaughter suffer from issues. So with our family history they aren't messing about.

I have to go in for 9 needle biopsies (3 in each growth) at the beginning of July. If they come back negative then I will have a check up again in 3 months. If they come back inconclusive (as they did the first time I had to have Thyroid surgery) or positive the other half of the Thyroid will have to come out.

So worst case scenario is another throat surgery and I live on a tiny pill the rest of my life. The alternative is not a very pleasant thought, so I guess a pill isn't so bad.

Over all I feel great though! I have more energy than I have had in a very long time. My BMI has come down over 20 points ... and I walked all the way from the parking garage, into the hospital and up to my Doctors office with out sitting down half way. I've never been able to do that.

I can also wear my seat belt comfortably now and I bought a new outfit that is so cute and summery. It's 4 sizes smaller than what I have ever been able to buy before. I was sure it wasn't going to fit, but it did ... with room to spare!

Little daily victories ... every day brings something new and exciting .. and this is still really only the beginning.

Even something as simple as being able to stand and clean the stove tonight just made my day. Every day that I can do something I hadn't been able to do for a while brings me one step closer to being able to make that walk around the block I am just dying to do.

4 comments:

Hi. Did you know that lots of thyroid patients are using iodine supplementation (which is very anti-cancer) to combat cancer in the thyroid? MANY patients are using it. There's a iodine patient group on Yahoo Groups. I'm not a member but I see lots of people mention it in the groups I do belong to.

Also, there's a group called Natural Thyroid Hormones on the Yahoo groups, and there is a moderator on there who had thyroid cancer. She's really nice and would talk to you.

And the "tiny pill" you mention? I'll bet that's T4, aka Synthroid, Levoxyl...the worst treatment you can be on. I highly recommend you become familiar with the patient activist site Stop the Thyroid Madness. It's here: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com It definitely made a difference for me, so I try to tell others about it.